FRESNO, CA America West Airlines announced today that it would begin daily nonstop service between Fresno and Las Vegas as one of the four cities to gain new service effective June 1, 2004. In addition to Fresno, other cities listed for Las Vegas service are San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Medford, Ore.; and Calgary, Canada.

Using 50-seat Canadair Regional Jets operated by America West Express/Mesa, the new low-cost service is part of America West’s planned expansion at its Las Vegas hub. The late night flights will provide Valley travelers with convenient, inexpensive red-eye connections to popular mid-west and east coast destinations. The proposed flight schedule is listed below:

Now if they could just get a flight out here to ABQ from LAS. I can't understand why they haven't gotten a nonstop out here yet when ELP, TUS, and COS have one. Are they just giving up on the market thinking WN has captured it all? But anyway, great news for FAT.

The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of Southwest Airlines its Directors or its Employees

Actually FAT-LAS is served by UAX/Skywest with 3 daily flights not 2 (a 6:55a, 12:58p, and a 5:45p dep from FAT). And don't forget that Allegiant is also operating 1 RT a day on FAT-LAS (leaves FAT at 7:30p).

The new AWX flight puts more competition on the route. It will be interesting to see what happens. Allegiant operates the only large jet. Skywest has the advantage of a large number of UA Mileage Plus members in the Fresno area. But AWX can sell seats to passengers connecting at America West's LAS midnight hub and has the latest scheduled times.

FATFlyer, sorry, I forgot about Allegiant's flight, and I was just guessing on the frequency of Skywest's flights between FAT-LAS. I'm guessing that HP could pull out again, they did so once before. It seems Allegiant and UAX are firmly entrenched in this route. Does HP Express still fly the CR9 to FAT from PHX?